SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. —
July 9, 2012 — SEMI
projects semiconductor equipment sales will reach $42.4 billion in 2012 according
to the mid-year edition of the SEMI Capital Equipment Forecast, released here
today at the annual SEMICON West exposition.

Driven
by consumer demand for tablet, smartphone, and mobile devices, chipmakers
continue to purchase manufacturing technology equipment. The forecast indicates that, following a 9
percent market increase in 2011, the equipment market will contract by 2.6
percent in 2012. The year 2012 is likely
to be the fourth highest spending year in history, with higher spending only in
2011 ($43.5 billion), 2007 ($42.8 billion) and 2000 ($47.7 billion). With $33.0 billion for 2012 forecasted for
Wafer Processing equipment, it will be the second highest spending year ever
for this segment, surpassed only by the $34.3 billion spent in 2011.

"We
expect 2012 to post one of the highest rates of global investment for
semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Following a multi-year market expansion,
sales will again exceed $42 billion — just one billion short of last year’s
spending rate as the industry absorbs new capacity," said Denny McGuirk,
president and CEO of SEMI. "We also forecast accelerated spending to exceed
$46 billion in 2013.”

Wafer
Processing Equipment, the largest product segment by dollar value, is expected
to decrease 3.8 percent in 2012 to $33.0 billion. The forecast predicts that
the market for both Test ($3.8 billion) and Assembly & Packaging ($3.4
billion) equipment will remain essentially flat (increase of 0.2 percent and
0.9 percent, respectively).

Growth
is forecasted in only two regions in 2012 — Korea and Taiwan, which will both
become the largest two markets for equipment spending in 2012. In 2013, Korea and North America are expected
to claim the top spots, with Taiwan slipping to third place in terms of
equipment spending. The following results are given in terms of market size in
billions of U.S. dollars and percentage growth over the prior year:

SEMI is the
global industry association serving the nano- and microelectronics
manufacturing supply chains. SEMI member companies are the engine of the
future, enabling smarter, faster and more economical products that improve our
lives. Since 1970, SEMI has been committed to helping members grow more
profitably, create new markets and meet common industry challenges. SEMI
maintains offices in Beijing, Bengaluru, Berlin, Brussels, Grenoble, Hsinchu,
Moscow, San Jose, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C.
For more information, visit www.semi.org.